Colour wheel
Munsell colour system
The Munsell colour system was started by a colourist called Albert H. Munsell nearly a decade ago. They specialise in developing and producing physical colour standards based on the Munsell colour theory. This theory is based on a three-dimensional model in which colour is comprised of three attributes; Hue (colour itself), value (lightness/darkness), and chroma (colour saturation or brilliance), these are sometimes recognised as the HVC.
Hue is the part of the colour by which we distinguish red from green and blue from yellow etc. The natural order of hues is red, yellow, green, blue, purple. This means if you mix paints of adjacent colours in this series, they’ll obtain a continuous variation from one to the other.
Value is what indicates the lightness of a colour. With pure black being 0 on the scale and pure white being 10. Black, white and greys are called neutral colours. They have no hue, colour that has a hue are called chromatic colours.
Chroma is the departure degree of colour from the neutral colour of the same value. Colours of low chroma are sometimes called “weak,” while those of high chroma is said to be “highly saturated,” “strong,” or “vivid.” If you mixed a red paint gradually with a grey paint of the same value, the series of gradually changing colours would show increasing chroma.
Experimenting with primary colours and secondary colours
Making Grey
Reflection
To initiate the project, I explored the colour wheel and looked at how colours are made. To deepen my understanding, I also looked into the history of colour and the Munsell colour system, which is based on a three-dimensional model with each colour comprised of three attributes hue, value (lightness/darkness) and chroma (colour saturation or brilliance). This provides a universal standard for matching and identifying colour which enables a designer to identify, communicate and visually match colour. I found this interesting as the Munsell system organises colour the way the human eye sees colour, making it easy to identify the colours you want. I am also fascinated by how we as individuals ‘see’ colour and how the way in which we individually discern a colour can affect how we respond.
It interests me that in our modern world it is commonly understood that colours can be categorised as either warm or cool. Our perception that red or yellow are warm and blue or green are cool only evolved in the eighteenth century, prior to that, in the Middle Ages blue was considered hot. This discovery has made me wonder about how preconditioned we are as a society to read colour and whether this is universal or a cultural perception.
I played with adjusting the blend of combining all the primary colours together with white to produce shades of grey. This really interested me as grey is often perceived as just ‘black and white’, achromatic and lacking in colour, whereas my experiments may me think more about the richness of colour taken to create it.
From this initial starting point, I wish to take what I have learnt about creating colours and my knowledge of the colour wheel to create a colour scheme for an interior. I have a better understanding of how to achieve the colours I am looking for, for example how to achieve a certain shade of grey, and how colours will sit together, working either harmoniously or in contrast to create dramatic effect.
Gillermo Santoma
Gillermo Santoma is an artist from Brazil he predominantly works between design, architecture, sculpture, and scenography. His work denotes an interest in the systematic transformation of the ways of objectifying, organizing, analysing, and, therefore, transmitting. His work implies that he is interested in how a space is affected by the furniture dimensions as well as the chromatic interventions.
I’ve
looked predominantly into his design/architectural work but when briefly looking into his sculpture work, I looked at a sculpture called “Farola” this looks to be made of repurposed materials. I like this sculpture for the fact it hasn’t been labelled as one specific thing and this decision has almost been left to the viewer. The tones used to add a nice contrast to the environment while still looking quite industrial, on the other hand, the suspended bicycle adds a magical feeling.
The room pictured on the left is called “Casa Horta”, it’s a combination of strongly assured minimal geometry and an incredibly saturated pallete that makes the space feel more like an artfully set than somebody’s home. Santoma creates such seamless edges in his designs that the room gives of an almost harmonic feel, at closer inspection you can tell that it’s a domestic setting by the textured heritage bones and ergonomic built-in efficiencies, the home is home to the designer himself. Casa Horta is a 1920s three-story house, located on the outskirts of Barcelona. I feel the artist sees object and space as one, a philosophy he has successfully mastered in Casa Horta. At first, I didn’t even realise the house wasn’t furnished as the pure geometry is enough to fulfil the eyes, Santoma has said previously “a place to live is always transformed depending on the needs- the purpose is to live surrounded by something that represents you. Throughout the construction process, day-by-day, or in the play, I’m continuously rethinking the space”.
Guillermo Santoma continues to use colour through his designs to convey his geometric ideas, I'd really like to take this approach with my work as I enjoy the effortless feel his work oozes.
After researching Santoma, I decided to draw one of his rooms to get a greater understanding of its dimensions. This enabled me to notice the interesting juxtaposition of the different structures. I hadn't realised quite the complexity of the design and his clever use of angles.
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